lected from the same locality by Miss Kell, of Lewes. All the leaves I have examined are dicotyledonous, and appear to have been shed; many are referable to the Lauraceae and Amentaceæ. Some of them resemble species of willow, poplar, laburnum, &c. ; but it is impossible from a detached leaf to arrive at any definite approximation to the species or even genus. When the sandstone is first broken, the leaves are generally very perfect, and present a glossy surface; but the epidermis soon shrivels and falls off, leaving only the ribs and nervures, or their impressions; a coating of thin gum-water immediately after the leaves are exposed will preserve them. * In Alum Bay, above the "basement bed" of the London clay, there is a thin stratum of light-coloured laminated clay, which abounds in similar vegetable remains. Mr. S. Pearce Pratt and Mr. Prestwich have made considerable collections from this place: this deposit is supposed to be 300 or 400 feet lower in the series than the analogous layers at Bournemouth.† § 6. FOSSIL PALM-LEAF, FROM WHITECLIFF BAY.— To the discrimination and assiduity of Mr. Fowlstone I am indebted for the preservation of this highly interesting addition to the fossil flora of the Isle of Wight. It is a flabelliform, or fan-like leaf of a palm, and was found imbedded in a large mass of fawn-coloured limestone that had fallen from the freshwater strata of the cliffs, and been lying within reach of the waves sufficiently long for the surface to be partially covered with fuci and algæ. On splitting off a portion of the rock, the leaf was exposed in * In Tab. xxiii. of MM. Dunker and Von Meyer, "Palæontographica," several leaves are figured from the molasse of Günzburg, which appear identical with some of those from Bournemouth. † The reddish marl containing dicotyledonous leaves, at Castle Hill, Newhaven, is a thin layer, which lies below the basement-bed. See "Fossils of the South Downs," Pl. I. the state delineated in the annexed engraving (lign. 37); the piece removed bears the corresponding imprint, and has on its external surface numerous fragments of the carbonised foliage of palms, and vestiges of a club-moss LIGN. 37-FOSSIL PALM-LEAF FROM WHITECLIFF BAY.- Nat. size. (Lycopodium), and other plants resembling certain species described by M. Brongniart as occurring with similar palmleaves in the eocene strata of France. This frond belongs to the species of fossil palm figured and described by M. Adolphe Brongniart as Palmacites Lamanonis, † * Mémoires du Mus. d'Hist. Nat. tom. viii. pt. iii. fig. 1. The specific name is derived from M. Lamanon, who first discovered this palm at Aix. T from specimens obtained at Aix, in Provence; a locality rich in eocene fossils, and whence, by the kindness of my friends, Sir C. Lyell and Sir R. Murchison, I procured, in 1829, a beautiful example of this kind, and a large collection of fishes, insects, shells, &c., now in the British Museum.* The Isle of Wight palm-leaf is thirteen inches in length, and eleven inches in width; it retains two inches of the petiole or leaf stalk, which is smooth and without spines, and somewhat prolonged at the extremity in which the leaf is inserted. The leaf is plicated in small folds at the base, and expands in diverging lobes, which separate towards the summit; these are half-an-inch wide, and on some of them fine linear elevated striæ or nervures may be distinctly traced. The general aspect of the fossil is that of a fan half opened. The vegetable tissue that remains is in the state of a dark brown carbonaceous substance, forming a thin pellicle of lignite. Gyrogonites (see p. 78, lign. 5,) and several freshwater shells (paludina, limneus, planorbis, see pl. 1,) are imbedded in the stone; and numerous casts of cyprides (minute fluviatile crustaceans, see p. 223) are distributed among the carbonised foliage on the outer surface of the mass, The discovery of this specimen proves that by diligent and judicious research at Whitecliff Bay, many important additions might be made to the flora of the country which was inhabited by the extinct races of pachydermata, whose bones and teeth are imbedded in the tertiary strata of this island and of the continent. § 7. EOCENE REPTILES.-CHELONIA, OR TURTLES.-A few detached ribs, scutes, and bones of two or more species See the "Memoir on the Freshwater Formation at Aix, in Provence," by Messrs. Lyell and Murchison, "Jameson's Edinburgh Journal," 1829. Figures of some of the fishes and insects are given in my "Wonders of Geology," 6th edit., vol. i. p. 261. of emys and trionyx, from Binstead and Headon Hill, are the only vestiges of chelonian reptiles I have collected since my former notice of the eocene chelonians of the island (ante, p. 80): but several splendid examples of freshwater turtles, having the carapace almost perfect, have been discovered by the Marchioness of Hastings, and are now preserved in her ladyship's choice museum. Seven species are figured and described in the "Monograph on the Fossil Reptiles of the London Clay," a work to which the collector should refer to ascertain the characters and relations of any specimens of this kind he may be so fortunate as to obtain. * § 8. CROCODILIAN REPTILES.—In addition to the jaw, teeth, and other parts of the skeleton of the alligator (A. Hantoniensis, p. 125), and of a species of crocodile (C. Spenceri, p. 118), the eocene deposits of Hordwell and Lymington have yielded to the researches of the Marchioness of Hastings, and of Messrs. Falconer, other remains of crocodiles. The most remarkable of these interesting relics is the cranium and lower jaw with teeth in a very perfect state, and vertebræ, of a species named, in honour of its noble discoverer, C. Hastingsiæ; the skull is eighteen inches long. In their general characters the jaws bear a close analogy to those of the alligator described by Mr. Searles Wood, but are distinguished by the groove or notch in the upper maxilla, for the reception of the fourth canine tooth of the lower jaw, which, in the alligator, is received in a circumscribed cavity. FIRST CAUDAL CROCODILIAN VERTEBRA.-I cannot pass by without comment the remarkable fact, that the * At Efford House, near Lymington. + Published by the Palæontographical Society of London. Figured and described by Professor Owen in the same Monograph. first caudal vertebra of each of the three Hordwell species of crocodiles has been obtained. In 1837, the discovery of the very fine specimen of crocodilian reptile at Swanage, now in the British Museum, induced me to institute a rigorous examination of the skeleton of a large gavial in Dr. Grant's collection, with the view of determining the characters and relations of the fossil reptile. I then ascertained that the body or centrum of the first caudal vertebra in the adult gavial is convex at both ends; this remarkable modification being necessary in consequence of the concavity of the anterior and posterior articulations of the two anchylosed vertebræ that form the sacrum: as this character was not mentioned by Cuvier, nor by any other author to which I had access, a description, with figures, was published in “The Lancet,” and in my “Wonders of Geology” (vol i., p. 418). The importance of this knowledge to the palæontologist was quickly shown by the occurrence of a doubly convex vertebra in some Himalayan fossils received from Major Cautley by Dr. Buckland, and which had occasioned many vague surmises. It is peculiarly gratifying to me to find that the value of this discovery is strikingly exemplified in the present instance, as the following observations of Professor Owen testify: "The first caudal vertebra which . presents a ball for articulating with a cup on the back part of the last sacral, retains, nevertheless, the typical position of the ball on the back part of the centrum; it is thus biconvex, and the only vertebra of the series which presents that structure. I have had this vertebra in three different species of extinct eocene crocodilia. The advantage of possessing such definite characters for a particular vertebra is, that the homologous vertebra may be compared in different species, and may yield such distinctive characters as will hereafter be pointed out in those of the three species above cited."* * "Foss. Rept. of the London Clay," p. 15. |